Apple Bashed Again by Consumer Reports

Over the weekend, my colleague and fellow MMi staff writer Wiley John Wright covered the forthcoming conclusion of Apple's free iPhone 4 case program. As we've known for some time, the program in question will draw to a close in two weeks on September 30th. Understandably, however, all are not pleased with the decision by Apple to halt the case program.

In particular, the folks at Consumer Reports (who first ripped Apple to shreds in the wake of "Antennagate") are taking yet another strong stand against Apple and reiterating the publication's refusal to recommend the iPhone 4. Yesterday on its official blog, Consumer Reports once again condemned Apple's "less consumer-friendly" actions. That is, "Putting the onus on any owners of a product to obtain a remedy to a design flaw is not acceptable to us," the note from Consumer Reports read.

We therefore continue not to recommend the iPhone 4, and to call on Apple to provide a permanent fix for the phone's reception issues.

But Apple has repeatedly stated (when asked by inquiring journalists) that the company will not extend the free case program because, according to the folks in Cupertino, the "problem" that the case was meant to solve has largely faded away. After all, Steve Jobs himself said he thought "Antennagate" was an overblown media feeding frenzy and little else. It now appears that Apple's decision to go through with discontinuing the free case program confirms Jobs' opinion and stated desire to "get past" this unfortunate chapter in Apple's history.